Christian Danve Castroverde joins Wilfrid Laurier University as Assistant Professor
Christian Danve Castroverde, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Sheng Yang He, has joined as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Danve’s lab will investigate the transcriptional and hormonal regulation of plant immune responses under various environmental and abiotic stresses, using a combination of model organisms and important crop plants. His research program aims to further refine and integrate our understanding of the mechanisms underlying plant diseases in a changing environment, in order to better understand and improve plant resilience.
Danve joined the He lab in 2016 and was a member of both the MSU-DOE Plant Research Lab (PRL) and Plant Resilience Institute (PRI). He has researched how environmental conditions, specifically high temperatures, influence plant disease, a major threat to global food security. In 2018, he won a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship to support his efforts.
MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, 2019
“I am very excited to begin this new chapter in my academic career!” Danve says. “I am very grateful to have been given an opportunity to work with the distinguished and collegial group of Sheng Yang He, and also to interact with exceptional researchers in the hallowed halls of PRL and PRI. It will be bittersweet to leave MSU, but I plan to continue collaborating with colleagues here. This institution has been an integral part of my life for the past three years.”
Sheng Yang He, Danve’s mentor, adds, “Danve came to MSU with well defined goals and did every thing right in terms of preparing for a faculty position. He is a wonderful researcher, teacher, and mentor. His love of science and his interactive personality stand out. Danve will be missed.”
Danve obtained his BS in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of the Phlippines and his MSc and PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Guelph, Canada.
Good luck, Danve!
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